Pair of half-moon gardeners

The Empire style, exported to Italy under the impulse of the Bonaparte family, was adopted for the interiors of the imperial palaces of Naples, Genoa and Florence. The eldest sister of Napoleon, Elisa Bonaparte, who had a pronounced taste for the arts, surrounded Italian artists and appealed to the best Florentine cabinetmakers. His orders favoured the development of a Tuscan neo-classicism. At the Pitti Palace, there was a double pair of gardeners that Enrico Colle attributes to Giuseppe Colzi identical to an existing pair at the Masséna Museum acquired by the Prince of Essling in 1900.
These half-moon-shaped gardeners are made up of a tank facing a buckwheat radiant decor and surrounded by a small gallery adjourned in bronze imitating the water leaves. They are based on four feet decorated at the top of cariatides in coated and golden bronze resting on a mahogany base. The side is enriched with a light bronze ornamentation made of floral bouquets and the center of a couple of doves surrounded by a garland and a foliage branch.